Fort Bragg soldier killed in Afghanistan

A Special Forces soldier from Fort Bragg was killed in southern Afghanistan Sunday when his Humvee struck a pressure-detonated bomb.

Master Sgt. Mitchell W. Young, 39, grew up in Jonesboro, Ga., near Atlanta, said his mother, Jane Young, where he played Little League and later learned how to tinker with cars.

"He was just that mischievous, red-headed, freckle-faced kid next door," she said in a telephone interview from Georgia.

Except that the cars he liked to collect and build were classic street rods, highly-modified older cars, like the 1932 Ford he owned.

The family didn't have many military connections, but Young got a taste for it when he joined ROTC at Jonesboro High School, his mother said. He wanted to enlist right after graduation.

She persuaded him to wait a little longer, and to attend North Georgia College and State University, a military college. After two years, he decided that the military was definitely what he wanted to do, and dropped out to enlist.

Young joined the Army in 1991 and served in various units before becoming a Green Beret eight years later and being assigned to Fort Bragg. He was assigned to his latest unit, the 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group, in October, 2007, according to a Special Forces news release.

At Fort Bragg, he met the daughter of a retired Special Forces soldier. They both had Harley-Davidson motorcycles and when he wasn't at war they often took them on rides for charity, his mother said.

Eventually, they married.

This was his third tour in Afghanistan and he also served a tour in Iraq, his mother said. The last time he was deployed, his wife, Robyn, raised money for a charity to help the wounded.

According to a Special Forces news release, he was on patrol near Kajaki Sofla in eastern Helmand province when his truck rolled over the bomb.

The notification team arrived just after his mother returned home from church Sunday.

He died doing exactly what he wanted, she said.

"He was the head of his (Special Forces) team, and absolutely loved everything about it," she said.

Young is survived by his wife, Robyn, of Fayetteville, N.C.; his mother; a brother, Brent; and a sister, Cheryl.

A Special Forces spokesman said Young's death was unrelated to the battle in eastern Afghanistan the same day in which nine U.S. troops were reported killed.

News researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this story.